Exit from Brexit?

EU Council President Donald Tusk and Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker have told London that continued EU membership is still a possibility, fuelling the debate about a second Brexit referendum. The Europeans' "hearts are still open" to the British if they change their minds, Tusk said in the EU parliament in Strasbourg. Juncker concurred, but London is apparently not interested.

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Der Standard (AT) /

Fight for the Brits until the end

Tusk and Juncker are making the best of the moment because in the UK there's a lively debate about holding a new referendum, writes Der Standard:

“At this point the Tusk/Juncker duo is intervening, the EU Council president very personally indeed by assuring the 65 million Brits of the Europeans' 'open hearts' directly from the EU Parliament. This can be interpreted in two ways: the two were being cynical and trying to up the pressure on May. Or these 'old hands' still believe that common sense can prevail and that citizens on this and the other side of the English Channel will realise what Brexit will surely bring: losers on both sides and weakened positions. And that - like in 2015 when the threat of Grexit loomed in the euro crisis - we should never stop fighting for people and for countries.”

New Statesman (GB) /

Our citizens were duped

The British should be given a second chance to decide their fate because the kind of Brexit EU critics promised them will never come about, the New Statesman argues:

“Remember: we were told voting for Brexit would mean hundreds of millions of pounds extra for the NHS. Instead we've got a downgraded economy, a Brexit divorce bill of at least £35bn, an NHS in crisis and no sign of any extra money. … As it becomes increasingly obvious that the vision of Brexit sold to the British people is undeliverable, everyone has the right to keep an open mind about whether or not it's really the right path for the country.”

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (DE) /

Unfortunately not very realistic

Of course it would be better if the British stayed in the EU, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung agrees, but asks:

“Is it really realistic to think they'll do an about-face? The British voters gradually seem to be realising just how much of a mess they've got themselves into. Recent polls have again shown that a majority of the population is in favour of remaining in the EU. The governing Conservatives, however, will have no interest in letting the inner-party conflict over EU membership flare up again. And even a change of government is no guarantee that the Brits will exit from Brexit. Labour leader Corbyn hasn't exactly come across as a convinced European.”

The Irish Times (IE) /

English psychosis must be healed first

The Irish Times revisits the causes of the Brexit:

“The EU challenged England not to give up a national identity, but to acquire one - to give up the illusions embodied in a United Kingdom that never was a nation, but was always a device to conceal England's colonial relation to the other nations inhabiting Great Britain and Ireland. ... Not until there is a separate English parliament, giving England at last the distinctive political identity it has shunned for 300 years, will the delusions that led the country to Brexit finally be dissipated by contact with reality. Perhaps then, with their psychosis healed, the English will apply to rejoin the EU.”